War or Health? A Reader

Zed Books, £16.95/$29.95, pp 652

ISBN 1 85649 951 0

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Finland may be a small country without any enemies, but it has produced a rather huge book on health and conflict, which will be invaluable to health professionals and policy makers.

The recent surge (if a growing trickle can be called that) of interest in health issues arising out of conflict follows a brutal century, in which 107 million people have died as a direct result of war. This book — from the Finnish Physicians for Social Responsibility — covers everything from the health effects of different arms systems, to the demographic and social consequences of war, to the …